A&E prepping Psycho prequel TV show, as well as a serial killer series

A&E is getting into the murderin' business with two new scripted shows announced today at the TCA conference, one of which, "Bates Motel", will act as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. The network obviously has no respect for Mick Garris' PSYCHO 4...

On the Norman Bates front, here's what a press release had to tell us: “Bates Motel” serves as a prequel to the most famous fright film of all-time, “Psycho.” A&E is currently in script development. “Bates Motel” will give viewers an intimate understanding of how Norman Bates’ psyche developed from his childhood through his teen years. Fans will have access to the dark, twisted backstory and learn first hand how his mother, Norma, and her lover damaged Norman, helping forge the most well-known serial killing motel owner in history.

“Bates Motel” is produced by Universal Television for A&E Network. The script was written by Anthony Cipriano.

Meanwhile, the network is also developing "Those Who Kill" which, not unlike AMC's "The Killing" is based on an existing Danish series.

“Those Who Kill” is a Danish format based on the bestselling work of author Elsebeth Egholm. A&E has secured the U.S. format for the critically acclaimed crime series in Denmark. The series is about violent criminals who are surrounded by fear and mystique- the serial killer. When murders are not grounded in traditional motives and patterns of behavior, it takes a very particular kind of person to catch the serial killer; someone who knows and understands the killer's dark side and the fantasies that plague him. Someone like the two lead characters- a police detective that is trying to understand her own mysterious personal connection in to the mind of a serial killer, and a "profiler" (forensic psychiatrist), who both in very different ways possess a deep psychological understanding that connects them to the killer's victims and to the killer himself, driving them to pursue each case to the end of the line, again and again.

“Those Who Kill” is produced by Imagine Television and Fox 21. Glen Morgan will write the pilot script. Morgan, Brian Grazer, Francie Calfo, Peter Bose and Jonas Allen will serve as executive producers.

"The Killing" star Michelle Forbes

Extra Tidbit:

Universal TV made a "Bates Motel" TV movie back in 1987 as a potential pilot for a series, but it never came to fruition.